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If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front

The Earth Liberation Front is the radical environmental organization that the FBI calls the “number one domestic terrorism threat” in America.

Series

POV

Premiere Date

September 13, 2011

Length

90 minutes

Funding Initiative

Open Call

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2011 Sundance Film Festival-Best Editing

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2012 Academy Awards-Best Documentary Feature

Producer/Director

Marshall Curry

Marshall Curry is a two-time Academy Award-nominated documentary director. He got his start directing, shooting, and editing Street Fight, which follows Cory Booker's first run for mayor of Newark, NJ. It aired on PBS, the BBC, HBO Latin America, and was nominated for an Academy Award and an Emmy. After Street Fight, Curry was the director and producer, as…Show morewell as one of the cinematographers and editors, of Racing Dreams, which follows two boys and a girl who dream of racing in NASCAR. The film won numerous awards, including Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival, and is being developed into a fiction film by Dreamworks. Curry's third documentary (director, editor, writer), If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, follows an environmentalist who faced life in prison for burning two timber facilities. It won the Sundance Film Festival award for Best Documentary Editing and was nominated for an Academy Award. Most recently, Curry was Executive Producer (and additional editor) of Mistaken for Strangers, a heartbreaking comedy rock-doc about sibling rivalry in the band The National. It was the opening night film at the Tribeca Film Festival, where it received rave reviews. Show less

Sam Cullman

Cullman has shot numerous documentaries for broadcast and theatrical release. He was a cameraman on Why We Fight, which won the Sundance 2005 Grand Jury Prize for documentary. Most recently, Cullman was the Director of Photography on King Corn, an ITVS documentary about the American diet and food system. Cullman has also produced and directed a number of…Show moreshort films for government agencies and non-profits such as the NYC Housing Authority and the SEIU. Show less

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The Film

Daniel McGowan was a member of the Earth Liberation Front, the radical environmental group that the FBI calls the “number one domestic terrorism threat” in America. In 2007, McGowan went to prison for his role in two multimillion-dollar arson attacks on Oregon timber facilities. If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front looks behind-the-curtain at the ELF and explores two pressing issues in America today — environmentalism and terrorism.